“……”
“……”
Suddenly, the sounds of the game pad filled the room without any special conversation between us.
It wasn’t that loud, but it was just too quiet to ignore.
Ah, I could also hear the sounds from the game we were playing.
– Tap tap tap!
– Grenade!
– Boom!!!
“!?”
Bullets raining down and a grenade exploding right next to me.
I couldn’t help but flinch at the sound of the explosion.
“….”
“Don’t look at me like that.”
I was just a little startled by the grenade going off in the game.
After all, no one can be perfect, and a little surprise is unavoidable.
“The grenade went off out of nowhere, didn’t it? Plus, my character died, so it’s no wonder I was startled.”
“The NPC next to you warned you about the grenade.”
“I didn’t react in time.”
If I had been better at reacting, I wouldn’t even be playing this story game.
I’d probably be in a PVP game instead.
Of course, since I wasn’t good at games, it was a bit inevitable.
Besides, it was the Commander who suggested we play a story game in the first place.
“How do you expect me to aim with this controller anyway?”
“There’s compensation, so it’s not a problem. Do you even know how many times I’ve told you that?”
“I don’t.”
“Just respawn and run back.”
“…Yes.”
The game we were playing today with the Commander was a shooting game.
To be precise, it should be called a war game, right?
A story FPS game set against a backdrop of war between fictional nations.
It wasn’t really my cup of tea, but since I was terrible at PVP, I had to settle for a lower difficulty and push through the story.
– Remember this.
“…Oh?”
Suddenly, the protagonist drew their gun.
No, it was the group the protagonist belonged to.
I realized something serious was happening when I saw them draw guns at the airport.
– Don’t speak in the Empire’s tongue.
With that, the terrorists from the Republic started firing at the airport.
The screen suddenly switched to an elevator scene, and I was a bit shocked by the sudden shooting of civilians.
Well, it was a game, and I never expected the game to allow the killing of civilians.
Sure, it could happen in real wars, but still…
“…Is this right?”
“It’s a game, after all. Besides, it’s not even based on real countries, is it?”
“That’s true, but… it’s a bit shocking.”
Then, the story continued to completely obliterate the panic and we boarded a vehicle that came to pick up our group.
No.
“…Is this right?”
“That’s your second question.”
“No, it’s just… I didn’t think the character I was controlling would die….”
I was about to board the vehicle when my character suddenly died.
It wasn’t just losing a life in the game; it was death in the story.
While trying to get in the vehicle, my spy character got caught and just died.
“Well, my character isn’t the protagonist anyway. It’s just… for the sake of the story. Saying that makes it sound a bit cruel.”
“That’s true, but I didn’t expect it to be this easy.”
By the way, was it because we were playing the game?
Or was it because I was concentrating on the story way too much?
The awkwardness from before we started the game completely disappeared.
Now we were talking normally, and the tension on my shoulders had lessened a bit.
“Let’s take a short break… More time has passed than I expected.”
“It’s been about three hours.”
“We haven’t even reached the middle yet….”
“Is that so? I thought we played quite a bit.”
The fact that we hadn’t even passed the middle part still surprised me.
Three hours in, and I thought we’d breezed through at least half the story…
“Well, someone died too many times. Even though we are playing together, the story still progresses together…”
“…It’s not my fault.”
“Hmm.”
“Don’t look at me like that.”
It really wasn’t my fault.
How was I supposed to survive when a blind bullet pierced my head?
Of course, the Commander had only died a handful of times over those three hours…
“For now… get up. You’ve been sitting on that bed too long; your body is going to stiffen.”
“Yes.”
I stood up as the Commander suggested.
Even though it was a soft bed, sitting there playing games wasn’t exactly comfortable.
“And, uh… check on the laundry too.”
“…Yes.”
Thinking about it, it had been three hours so the sweat-soaked sweater should have dried by now.
I never expected I’d be washing clothes in a man’s room and borrowing clothes.
Looking at it this way, it felt like I was experiencing things I had never experienced before.
I had never shared a room playing games with someone like this.
If it were online, sure, but being so close physically, that was unheard of.
It wasn’t like it was the 20th century; we lived in a world where online gaming was well-developed, so there was really no reason for that.
And I didn’t have anyone close enough to visit my house to hang out…
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“It’s nothing.”
Was that it?
At first, the Commander felt completely suspicious, but now I thought I was starting to feel a bit familiar with him.
After all, I had spent the most time on the ship with him.
Of course, I never thought anything strange about it.
He was a man, after all.
Right now, he was in a woman’s body, but he used to be a man, and the Commander was also a man.
It seemed strange to have those kinds of thoughts given rationality.
“How’s the laundry?”
“It’s been in the dryer, but it’s still a bit damp. It looks like it needs at least another 15 minutes.”
“Is that so?”
Well, it was unavoidable.
It was an ordinary dryer, so naturally, it also needed a bit of time to dry clothes.
I had no intention of complaining about that.
Of course, I had to say something about the room being dirty when I entered and had to do a cleanup job.
“….”
“So, what are you going to do now?”
“Can I eat lunch… in this outfit?”
“Absolutely not.”
Even if I was a man before, I was still a person.
I had no intention of walking around outside in clothes that didn’t fit my size and exposed my collarbone.
I wasn’t some show-off flaunting my body, and besides, this shirt definitely belonged to the Commander, not me.
Wouldn’t it be weird to walk around dressed like this?
“Well, I guess we have no choice. Let’s just eat instant noodles.”
“I don’t mind.”
“I didn’t expect it to turn out like this; I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. I shouldn’t have come dressed like this in the first place… but cleaning was a necessary thing.”
As far as other things went, I had no intention of letting that go.
Even if time turned back to three hours ago, I wouldn’t have chosen not to clean.
While I usually wouldn’t care, I realized how messy the room was, and there was truly no way around it.
Next time I’d think about stopping by in the morning to clean up.
The Commander was surprisingly quite a hassle despite his appearance, so he surely wouldn’t have cleaned up after himself.
“….First, let me get some water. Just sit tight. You don’t have anything to do anyway.”
“Is that so?”
“There’s no need to set the table or anything. Just sit tight.”
“There aren’t any other side dishes, either. It’s not like a restaurant; we only have instant noodles here. Please just sit.”
“…Understood.”
With that much being said, I couldn’t do anything further.
It felt a bit awkward to just sit still, so I tried to find something to do, but I didn’t expect the resistance to be this strong.
The opposition was so fierce that I sat back down on the bed.
-Clank…
“If you place the metal chopsticks like that, you’re going to get burned when you pick them up…”
“…Got it.”
“Phew.”
I had to say something when I saw him thoughtlessly pouring water into the instant noodles and putting metal chopsticks on top.
Metal heats up quickly, and the water could get really hot, and if you weren’t careful, you could get burned.
Since we typed on computers a lot, we couldn’t afford to burn our fingers.
I really didn’t want to think of the pain of burning my fingers while typing on a keyboard.
“Commander, are you aware? There have been various talks going on within the ship recently.”
“What kind of talks?”
“There’s news going around about how our ship successfully completed missions, and they mention how you’ve been doing well in command.”
It wasn’t just the post I saw this morning; there were plenty of ordinary articles on the boards.
Of course, there were also plenty of bizarre articles, but…
The Commander seemed to know about the boards but didn’t seem to check them out.
That’s why I was in a position where I had to inform him about the opinions of the agents.
“It seems like the agents have a better opinion of you than before. It’s not just about being good-looking; they’re complimenting your commanding skills too.”
He was someone who had been somewhat troubled after experiencing his first mission, so I hoped this praise would boost his confidence a little.
“That’s… a relief.”
“Yes, it is. I’m really glad our ship’s commander isn’t known for just being good-looking and lacking in skills.”
If the Commander was just some long-in-the-tooth guy and the ship was running smoothly, that wouldn’t make any sense.
If that was the case, I would just resign.
After all, if the Commander couldn’t get the job done, I’d naturally have a lot more work on my plate.
I wanted to live comfortably and manage my work at a decent pace.
I absolutely did not want to live just doing work.
“That’s all thanks to you, isn’t it?”
“That’s true.”
“How rare for you to admit it easily.”
“Still, it’s the truth, isn’t it? I believe I’m doing my part well as the Commander’s aide.”
I said that with a weak smile.
After all, the conversation we were having wasn’t overly serious, and the Commander seemed to be smiling a bit as well.
“Yeah, it’s all thanks to you. Yeah…”
In response to that, he was conversing with me without any serious tension, so that was a good sign.
We had just been playing a game, and it was hard to keep a stiff atmosphere throughout our conversation, right?
Support me by donating at least $10, and you'll have the right to request any novel from Novelpia (excluding 19+ content) using a newly developed tool.
